Monday, April 14, 2008

He's Goin' the Distance

Robb called me from the trail today because he wanted to share something with me. According to the odometer on his trike, he has now cycled ONE THOUSAND MILES.

I would be willing to bet that there aren't many fully able bodied readers of this blog who've cycled that much in the past thirteen months!

Very recently, Robb has regained enough foot and ankle strength to enable him to "clip into" his pedals normally. Up to this point, he relied on me to do this, and when I wasn't around, he untied his shoes, clipped them to the pedals, and then stuck his feet int his shoes. This, as you can imagine, was a tedious and time consuming procedure.

(Despite this fact, I believe that these photos were taken from the seat of the trike.)

Don't worry! We do know the difference between this harmless Pacific Gopher Snake and his venomous cousins.

9 comments:

woo-hoo Robb! showin' us all up. i think i've walked an eighteenth of that in the past two years.

I taught a group of girl scouts to speak pig latin yesterday. (ay-hay aught-tay ay-hay oup-gray of-ay irl-gay outs-skay oo-tay eek-spay ig-pay atin-lay esterday-yay.) As of yesterday, I am the coolest person alive to about three kids. As of tomorrow, they'll forget all about it.

Cheers, Robb! Great accomplishment! Not being a snake fan, though, I doubt I would take time to compare the size of the neck and head - I'd just head in the opposite direction speedy-quick! Irrational, I know.

Make sure you don't run over any of those snakes, cause you are now low enough to the ground with your bike that revengeful snakes can leap upon you and bite you out of a fit of spite! If this does happen to you (highly likely) feel secure in your pedaling magnifigance and speed right on by, flaunting your muscular superiority in a scornful "Queen Elizabeth-like half hand wave". It's what I do when attacked by wildlife, repeatedly. Perhaps it's just a Pennsylvania thing...

Here's wishing you both luck as you start in on your next part of "millennial-ish journies" in this next phase of your life. I personally think you should start your own blog, Robb, docunenting the places, distances, conditions and your physical, mental and psychological responses to each part of your physically healing exertions. This would help a lot of people in your situation, as well as show YOU how far you have developed. It's a long way since you were in that hospital bed with the funny shoes, eh?

I heart those snake signs, as they sort of saved the arses of me and the then-much-smaller girls. We looked at that sign while entering Black Diamond, and then we encountered a snake on the trail. My thinking went like this: "Triangular head? Check. Fat body in proportion to its length? Check. Rattle on the tail? Check. Oh sh!t."

Lovely snake shots. (I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't get the whole of a gopher snake in focus.) Gopher snakes are cuddly. I really like handling them. So far I've resisted doing anything illegal like taking one home.

And no, I'm not a random snake-molester. Early birders sometimes find snakes basking on the road, still alive if they're lucky. Garter snakes we chase, but gopher snakes I pick up and carry off. Because they purr.